The results of the Conou, an efficient supply chain in the year of the pandemic

A circularity that is close to 100% and the resistance of the supply chain in the year of the pandemic. This is what emerges from the results of the National Conou-Consortium for the Management, Collection and Treatment of Used Mineral Oils in 2020. During the pandemic, the emissions for consumption followed a controversial trend: out of a total of about 369 thousand tons of lubricating oil released to consumption in 2020, oil in the traction sector fell by 13% while the oil used by industry, thanks to the uninterrupted activity of Italian companies, fell by only 7.5%, giving, in the second half, a signal growth of almost + 5% on 2019 then consolidated at + 8.5% between September 2020 and February 2021. The consortium sector collected 171 thousand tons of waste in 2020, starting the substantial totality of it for regeneration (169 thousand tons) , with a production of lubricating bases of 109 thousand tons and a stable yield of 65%. In percentage terms, the share of waste ready for regeneration in 2020 involved 98.8% of the used mineral oils collected, a very slight decrease compared to 2019 when they were 99.9%. Only 1.6 thousand tons went to combustion and 0.3 thousand to thermal destruction. The decline in collection achieved in the course of last year was 10.7% on 2019, motivated by the overall compression of about 10% of the consumption of new lubricants in the year of the pandemic. The collection rate, equivalent to the ratio between harvest and released for consumption, always stood at the maximum collectable value (the residual oil after use), equal to 46.2% in 2020 (it was 46.6% in 2019). The Conou circular model allowed an economic saving on oil imports of 73 million euros in 2020, thanks to the recovery from the ‘waste resource’ of new lubricants, bitumen and diesel bases. “This past year has been a lot. hard, there was a great difficulty. The reduction in volumes that we had by about 10% with higher peaks in times of crisis was a great challenge also for the regeneration because at that time no one was buying bases and therefore also the regenerated bases did not have an outlet on the market “, Riccardo Piunti, new president of the Consortium, tells Adnkronos.” Conou as a balancer of this system, both economic and operational, managed to manage this problem, helped dealers who were in difficulty and found operational outlets for the regenerated bases. So despite the enormous loss of volumes, at the peak of the pandemic, we managed to keep the supply chain in efficiency, to collect with the same standards as before. No calls from our customers remained invaded, we continued to collect the oil, “he concludes.